


A Kunoichi Sharp

by luvsanime02



Series: When the Wind Blows [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst and Humor, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto) - Freeform, Gen, Mild Language, Not Epilogue Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 16:58:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6123264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luvsanime02/pseuds/luvsanime02
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakura decided, if violence became necessary, to be sure that she punched Naruto at the right angle to hopefully smack him soundly against the back of Kakashi-sensei’s head.</p><p>Second in my When the Wind Blows series. Set sometime shortly after A Little Closer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Kunoichi Sharp

**Disclaimer:** Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto. I'm making no profit off of this fic.

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 **A Kunoichi Sharp** by luvsanime02

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Haruno Sakura did not whimper. She gave Naruto a doubtful look when he moved forward, but reluctantly let him try to untangle her hair from where it was caught in the fence. Grinding her teeth together out of sheer frustration while she waited impatiently, Sakura focused on the pain in her skull and tried to ignore how Sasuke-kun was facing in the opposite direction while Kakashi-sensei scouted ahead.

Not that their sensei wasn't entirely aware of what was going on behind him. Sakura's eyes narrowed as she watched his gaze flit everywhere but in her direction. Meanwhile, Naruto was-

Well. As she felt another sharp tug, Sakura decided that Naruto, her dear friend and teammate, was about three seconds away from getting his nose broken. If she didn't know perfectly well that Naruto was trying to make things better instead of leaving her bald, he'd already be embedded into the tree Kakashi-sensei was now casually leaning against.

Their sensei chose that exact moment to start humming. He still wasn’t looking their way, but instead gazing up now at the little wisps of clouds interspersed in the mid-morning sky. Sakura decided, if violence became necessary, to be sure that she punched Naruto at the right angle to hopefully smack him soundly against the back of Kakashi-sensei’s head. She was positive that she could aim correctly if she just twisted her spine a little. The extra pulling on her hair would totally be worth it.

"Uh, wait, that wasn't right," Naruto muttered from her left. Sakura clenched her fists tightly, until her black leather gloves creaked. Seeing this, or perhaps showing a smidgen of common sense and reading her mood through her tense shoulders, or just plain being himself in an awkward situation, Naruto let out a nervous laugh.

"Ah, don't worry about it, Sakura-chan," he reassured her, trying much too hard to sound cheerful, and talking much too loud considering he was standing right next to her ear. "I've almost got your hair untangled. I think it's just this curl wrapped up in this link here…" His voice went from confident to mumbling to just petering out altogether.

This wasn't  _fair._ Why was Sakura the one whose hair got tangled in the wire fence they were passing over? It wasn't very high, only about eight feet tall. Any one of them could scale it in a second and be on the ground again in even less time than that, so why did it have to be Sakura who was the one slowing them down?

Another tug. This time she felt some hair part company with her scalp. Tiny beads of moisture appeared in the corners of her eyes and she blinked them away, frustrated but refusing to cry right now, even from the pain.

Damn it, but she kept her hair short now to avoid this very kind of scenario. Sakura still remembered the taunts directed at her during her first chuunin exam, the hand that had gripped her hair forcefully, keeping her pinned down. She remembered shaking with fear. Not for herself, but because she was a thirteen-year-old kunoichi and her teammates were both unconscious. She’d been _alone_. Sakura’s teammates had needed her to protect them for once, and she hadn't thought for a second that she would actually be capable of doing so, but she’d known that she had to try, no matter what.

So she'd cut her hair and freed herself, and somehow, they’d all survived. Sakura had started training after that, determined to be stronger because her team deserved to have someone strong to rely on.

Then Sasuke-kun had left and tore her heart right out of her chest, leaving behind a gaping, hollow wound with pieces of shredded skin fluttering in the breeze of each ragged inhale. Sakura trained even more after that, not for her team so much as for herself, because it’d felt like she had nothing else left anymore with Sasuke-kun and Naruto both gone, leaving her behind as always.

She'd trained to escape the pain of abandonment, and eventually, she grew stronger. Now, Sakura was the strongest kunoichi in her age group, which was saying a lot against families like the Hyuuga and the Yamanaka, but it still wasn't good enough sometimes.

Sakura wasn't the one who'd faced down their lost teammate and told him to let go of his hatred or they'd die together. Actually, Sakura was still furious about that. How dare Naruto think that he could just die like that? That they both could? How dare he think only of saving Sasuke-kun, and not of what it would have done to her to go home after that, knowing that her team was broken forever?

What was she supposed to have done with her life then? Quit being a kunoichi and make friends with the civilian girls her age in the village? Find a clumsy, flabby, fumbling boy and marry  _him_ one day instead? Get assigned to another team and promoted now that she was no longer being deliberately held back from advancing to jounin? Move out of her parents’ house and into a small apartment like Kakashi-sensei’s, to live jaded and alone? Become a sensei herself, and spout lies and niceties about how your team was your family, even though hers had abandoned her to live out the rest of her life without their support to lean on?

Her brain couldn’t even be bothered to scream denials at the endless parade of undesired scenarios running through her head. For all the acclaim her intelligence received amongst her peers, Sakura wouldn’t know how to  _begin_  listing the pros and cons of continuing on with no Sasuke-kun and no Naruto in her life. How could they be so selfish, the both of them? How could they always expect her to accept being left behind? It wasn't fair that even though she was strong, she still wasn't _really_ an equal, and-

And her team really didn't have the time to waste standing around while Naruto tried to untangle her hair from this fence. A stupid C-rank mission or not, they were on a strict time schedule that Kakashi-sensei had already made them late enough for. Sakura could see, off to her right, Sasuke-kun shift his weight to his other foot and knew that he felt the same impatience, although she couldn't stop the small wriggle of happiness in her stomach when he still didn't say anything to hurry them along. Or simply go on ahead without them.

Still. Sakura sighed explosively, and Naruto froze. His fingers felt like they were even more tangled in her hair than the wire was. Brusquely, she pulled out a kunai and flipped it around so that the handle was pointing outwards, then extended it behind her left shoulder. "Here," she said quietly. Her anger was already forgotten. It was no one's fault, after all. Not even hers.

There was a moment of hesitation, but then she felt his fingers carefully unthreading themselves from her hair before the kunai was taken from her hand. Letting her arm drop back down to her side, she braced herself for more pulling on the already tender area.

Naruto's cuts were quick and precise, and didn't hurt at all. He'd obviously wrapped his other hand around the hair closest to her skull so that it wouldn't pull anymore. The unexpected gentleness was what finally caused a lump to rise up in Sakura’s throat. She swallowed it back down.

Then she was free, and Sakura gingerly moved her neck for the first time in several minutes, ignoring the slight strain of her muscles and leftover ache on her head, already absently healing them. She turned around to see Naruto standing there looking down, with something akin to disbelief, at the short, pink strands still in his hand. Despite herself, Sakura felt her lips pull up into a small smile. She quietly reached out and plucked her kunai from his other hand.

"Thanks, Naruto." And just like that, he grinned, the same grin he’d given her when they first met back at the academy. Sakura enjoyed the warm glow that memory brought up for a few short moments.

"Heh, sure," he replied, letting her hair fall to the ground, a quick scrape of his sandal shifting enough dirt around so that the strands were completely hidden from view. Nodding approvingly, and still feeling that warmth inside of her, Sakura turned to face Sasuke-kun, who was now looking their way thoughtfully, and probably had been ever since she’d brought out her kunai, in fact.

She looked Sasuke-kun straight in the eyes and nodded her readiness. In response, he started walking forward as though no time had elapsed at all, which Sakura was internally grateful for. Even more so when Sasuke-kun waited until she and Naruto had walked past him side by side before he fell into step behind them, acting as their rearguard now instead of making her retake the position. Maybe, next time, it would be Sasuke-kun's hair getting stuck in a wire fence.

No, it was definitely going to be Kakashi-sensei's, she decided a minute later, as they continued on with their mission. Sakura was going to make sure of this by walking up to him while smiling nicely, and then casually shoving his head through the jagged parts of the wires herself. The man  _still_  had the nerve to be humming.


End file.
